Which Way, L.A.?

Workers Compensation Reform, All Over Again

Governor Schwarzenegger thought workers' compensation reform was behind him, but a year later it's on the agenda again. Reductions in payouts to disabled workers are being called "unacceptable" and insurance companies are accused of hoarding their profits. Clifford Sweet, twice president of the association of lawyers defending employers against disability claims, laments that "people with real injuries and real impairments are going to get practically nothing." Reductions in payments for permanent disability are "socially and politically unacceptable." We have an update and learn why Democrats threaten to reject Schwarzenegger's Director of Workers' Comp. Reporter's Notebook: Should People Be Worried about Freeway Shootings? Five freeway shootings in recent days have left four men dead and another wounded. The Highway Patrol says the rash of shootings seem to be unrelated, but possibly the work of copy-cats emboldened because nobody's been arrested. How worried should motorists be? USC Sociologist Barry Glassner, author of Culture of Fear , says it's not uncommon to overlook what should concern us to focus on things that are out of our control.